Glog

It’s a slow Sunday after a night out celebrating a friend’s birthday, and I just wanted to give the news a cursory look, more out of habit than anything else. It turned out anything but cursory as news outlets report on Mr. Powell’s endorsement of Mr. Obama. He was already an outcast in Republican circles, and the usual outlets will go onto the offensive and set the spin wheels in motion: from race to redemption, vengeance and bitterness, in whatever array of colors, shapes and sizes anyone cares to add. I have always respected Mr. Powell, and I am glad to see that there is a shred of decency in him that seems to have survived his tenure in the first Bush term. I believe he hit rock-bottom as he stood in front of members of the United Nations on February 5, 2003 to defend the indefensible, and his replacement has essentially been a lame duck all throughout the second term (and I don’t particularly mind that state of affairs).

Is his endorsement redemption? Perhaps. Is there an agenda behind it? Maybe. Might he get to be, serving under President Obama, the Secretary of State he could never be under President Bush? Not unthinkable, and not necessarily undesirable. Regardless, it is undeniable that he has stepped up to the plate, and I’d like to believe he has done so in following a core set of beliefs that are able to distinguish right from wrong.